Tough Mudder

Tough Mudder was in September.  It was definitely tough, but it was also lots of fun. Probably because I did it with a bunch of friends. Friends make a huge difference.

I'm not going to tell you everything about the experience because I really think it is something you have to do yourself. I'll give you some highlights though.

1. Just to get into the starting gate you have to go over a 10 foot wall. :/  Really TM?
2. The ice bath at the Gladiator Rock n' Roll run was worse than the Arctic Enema.  Just sayin'.  (Oh, I didn't tell you about that race either, did I?)
3. Spartan Sprint was more fun because the course is smaller meaning less time between obstacles.  We did lots of "running" at TM.
4. A person (not me) can put away a lot of beers in 10+ miles.
5. Electric shock is no joke. Context:  before the event my boss and I were talking about the electric shock obstacles.  There were two places on the course.  One where you belly crawled through water under the wires if you could manage to avoid them (you couldn't). And a second at the very end of the race where the wires hung down like a shower curtain and you have to run through them.  My boss says, "There is no way they can really hurt you.  It must be a very low voltage." I said, "Well, I don't know...you do have to sign a death waiver."
   
   Let me say again: Electric shock is no joke!  They HURT so much!  The first obstacle (the low crawl) wasn't horrible, it snapped and stung, but you were through it pretty quickly.  The last obstacle was awful.  I was hit several times.  One was so hard it knocked me to the ground and another lashed me right across my mouth!
6. Not all mud is created equal.  This event was held at a coal mine.  It was a special kind of muddy. A few days later I was cleaning out my ruck and marveling at the black water running off of it.  I was shocked at the amount...then I remembered the pools of black water we had to crawl through.
7. TM doesn't have the same accountability as Spartan Sprint.  At Spartan if you skip/miss an obstacle, its a penalty of 30 burpees.

All in all, TM was good times.  I was proud of myself and my team for what we accomplished...even if we were nearly the last team off the course.

I'm not the only one who got a shock across the face.